Afroasiatic languages

The Afroasiatic language family includes around 375 languages which are spoken
by over 350 million people in the Middle East, North Africa and parts of the Sahel.
These languages are also known as Afro-Asiatic, Afrasian or Hamito-Semitic / Chamito-Semitic.

Austronesian languages

The 1,257 Austronesian languages are spoken by about 300 million people in
the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, and in Madagascar. Some of them
are also spoken on the Southeast Asian mainland. They are thought originate in Taiwan.

Aymaran languages

The Aymaran is a small family of languages spoken in central parts of the Andes
mainly in Bolivia, and also in Peru, Chile and Argentina. There are some 2.5 million
speakers of these languages, almost all of whom speak Aymara.

Caucasian languages

The languages of the Caucasus region are grouped into three families, which are not
related to one another: Northeast, Northwest and South Caucasian. The Northeast Caucasian
languages are spoken by about 3.8 million people in the Russian republics of Dagestan and
Chechnya, the disputed region of Ingushetia, and in northern Azerbaijan and northeastern Georgia. The Northwest
Caucasian languages have about 2.5 million speakers in Adygea, Kabardino-Balkaria,
Karachay-Cherkessia, and Abkhazia in the Russian Federation, and also in Turkey.
The South Caucasian or Kartvelian languages have some 5.2 million speakers in
Georgia and neighbouring parts of Russia.

Eskimo-Aleut languages

There are eleven Eskimo-Aleut languges spoken in Greenland, northern Canada, northern
Alaska, and on the Chukchi Peninsula in eastern Siberia by about 77,415 people.
They are also known as Eskaleutian, Eskaleutic, or Inuit-Yupik-Unangan.

Guaicuruan languages

There are five Guaicuruan languages spoken by about 48,590 people in northern
Argentina, western Paraguay, and in Mato Grosso do Sul in Brazil. They are also
known as Guaykuruan, Waikurúan, Guaycuruano, Guaikurú, Guaicurú,
or Guaycuruana languages.

Indo-European languages

The 445 or so Indo-European languages have about 3 billion native speakers
and many more second and foreign language speakers. They are are spoken in
most of Europe, parts of the Middle East, South and Central Asia, the Americas,
Australia, New Zealand, and many parts of Africa.

Na-Dene languages

The Na-Dene grouping of languages includes the Athabaskan languages, Eyak and
Tlingit languages, and possibly the Yeniseian languages of Siberia. These
languages are spoken by about 180,000 people in Alsaka, northwestern Canada,
southwestern parts of the USA, and in central Siberia. This grouping is
somewhat controversial, and is also known as Nadene, Na-Dené, Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit
or Tlina-Den.

Nilo-Saharan languages

The Nilo-Saharan language family consists of around 200 languages
which are spoken in central and east Africa by about 50 million people,
particularly along the River Nile and in central parts of the Sahara.

Oto-Manguean languages

The Oto-Manguean languages are spoken by about 2 million people in
central Mexico in the states of Oaxaca, Mexico, Hidalgo, Querétaro.
They were formerly spoken in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Costa Rica.

Peba-Yagua languages

The Peba-Yaguan languages were spoken in northwestern parts of the Amazon.
The only surviving member of this language family is Yagua, which is spoken
in northeastern Peru. The other members, Peba and Yameo, are extinct.

Quechuan languages

The Quechuan language family consists of 46 languages spoken by
about 8-10 million people mainly in Peru, Ecuador and Boliva, and
also in Argentina and Colombia. The Quechuan languages are the most
widely-spoken indigenous languages in South America.

Tupi-Guarani languages

The Tupi-Guarani language family consists of 50 or so languages
spoken by about 10 million people in parts of Brazil, Bolivia, French Guiana,
Paraguay and Peru. It is a branch of the larger Tupian language
family, which includes another 20 languages.

Uralic languages

There are 38 Uralic languages spoken in Finland, Estonian, Hungary,
Russia, Norway and Sweden by about 25 million people. This family is named
after the Ural mountains, which is thought to be where they originated.
This language family is also known as Finno-Ugric, which generally
excludes the Samoyedic languages.

Yeniseian languages

There is just one Yenisei language spoken by just about 200 people along the
Yenisei river in central Siberia in the Russian Federation. The only other Yeniseian
language to survive into the 20th century was Yug(h), which became extinct in
1990.

Language isolates

Languages isolates are languages with no known connection to any other
languages. Some languages are isolates because all their relatives are
extinct, others, such as Basque, have been isolates for all their
documented existence.

Creole languages

Creole languages develop from contact languages or pidgins when they are
learned by children as native languages. Pidgins emerge in situations
where people who do not share a common language need to communicate.

International Auxiliary Languages (IALs)

International Auxiliary Languages are used as second languages
for communication between people from different countries without a
common languages. They are also known as IALs, auxlangs or interlanguages,
and this name often refers to planned or constructed languages.